1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid collection receptacles capable of receiving a liquid and liquid ejecting apparatuses provided with such liquid collection receptacles.
2. Related Art
Thus far, ink jet printers (called simply “printers” hereinafter) have been widely known as liquid ejecting apparatuses that eject a liquid onto a target through nozzle openings formed in a liquid ejecting head. With such printers, what is known as “cleaning”, in which thickened ink is forcefully sucked and discharged from within a recording head (liquid ejecting head) as waste ink (liquid), is normally carried out in order to suppress the nozzle openings from being clogged by the thickened ink (liquid), to discharge bubbles, foreign objects, and so on that have become intermixed with the ink inside of the recording head, and so on (for example, see JP-A-2007-296757).
With the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-296757, a waste ink tank is provided within the printer in a removable state. Waste ink that has been forcefully sucked from the recording head through the cleaning is discharged to the waste ink tank (liquid collector), which is disposed in a predetermined location within the printer, via a flexible tube functioning as a liquid flow channel, and is absorbed by a waste ink absorption member (liquid absorption member) held within the waste ink tank.
With the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-296757, the waste ink absorption member held within the waste ink tank absorbs the waste ink. Due to the force of gravity, the waste ink that has been absorbed by the waste ink absorption member permeates downward in the waste ink absorption member with ease, but has difficulty permeating in the horizontal direction from the discharge location, permeating upward, and so on. Accordingly, the waste ink becomes localized in the lower area of the waste ink absorption member, which makes it difficult to disperse the waste ink throughout the entirety of the waste ink absorption member; there has thus been a risk that the waste ink absorption member will become unable to sufficiently absorb the waste ink.